A self-absorbed young poet who composed rarefied verse about the nature of love, Dante Alighieri seemed entirely uninterested in anything other than Beatrice, the girl he had loved since they were both children, even as medieval Florence descended into violent turmoil. Fate worked very hard to make him write his great work, the Divine Comedy, and here James Burge explains to us how it did so. Caught up in the world of Florentine feuds, corruption, and betrayal, Dante was eventually exiled and forbidden to return on pain of death. Only then did he turn his attention to the larger world, and after an extensive self-education, abandon his attempt to change mankind through philosophy. Instead Dante formed an impassioned plea through a new kind of fiction, producing the masterwork that has been in print since printing was invented.

"The book wears its considerable scholarship lightly. Written in a no-nonsense, attractive style it combines seriousness with wry humor. Dante, famously, managed to hold the entire universe in his head; James Burge convinces us that he has somehow managed to do the same."óChristopher Frayling